


So...Um...How Was Your Vacation?

by maggiemerc



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-08-26 06:21:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16676221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maggiemerc/pseuds/maggiemerc
Summary: “And I’m sorry you two just drunkenly hooked up, and she and James broke up because Lucy came back, and—Lena’s bi?” Kara was no longer pretending to sit. She was back to standing. Really more a pacing.Alex considered grabbing another drink. “Yes?”“Alex, this is not a ‘yes?’ This is a yes or a no or—I need details!”“I’m giving you details and you keep telling me to shut up!”“You’re giving me **sex** details. I need emotional details. Gossip details. I need to know how a hook up in a Norwegian hostel turned into the three of us getting dinner in like—two hours.”***While Kara is away visiting family Lena calls on Alex to help her investigate an old research facility of her brothers. Things happen and when Kara returns she needs ALL of the details.





	1. Chapter 1

Alex knows it was not going to go well when there’s the telltale “whoomp” behind her. The very distinct sound of Supergirl coming in for a very rushed landing. It’s not bad enough to make things in the room rattle or her downstairs neighbor to complain, but it is also not the sound her sister normally makes when flying into Alex’s apartment.

Kara is normally more courteous.

Kara clearly did not care about being courteous because she was pissed.

Alex’s phone dinged in her hand. A text.

Judging by Kara’s piercing glare she knew whom the text was from. The text would be happy, maybe a little sassy. Just the sight of it would have something coiling tight in Alex’s belly and pulling a smile across her lips. _Giddiness_ would definitely be involved and if the texter were anyone else Kara would grin and demand to know everything.

But the texter wasn’t anyone else, so Alex slipped her phone into her back pocket, text unread.

“Hi,” she said, voice cheery and a little meek.

Kara continued to glare.

“How was your first patrol back?”

Just, a whole lot of glaring in Alex’s direction.

Alex came around her couch and pulled her sister into an embrace that was not returned. It was kind of like hugging a pillar of cement.

“I missed you?”

That at least got Kara moving. She narrowed her eyes. Her teeth gritted together.

Alex went over to the liquor by the front door and poured herself a finger of bourbon. No ice.

“You’re dating Lena Luthor?”

Two fingers.

“She told you.”

“She told Supergirl. Apparently you’re telling Kara and then we’re all going out for dinner. Lena’s excited by the way.”

She sipped her drink and turned around to face her sister. Who was still standing just inside the window, cape flapping in the breeze, hands inert at her sides.

“I didn’t want you to find out that way.”

“That my sister is dating my best friend—“ She came closer, ducking her head and dropping her voice to a stage whisper. “Who doesn’t know I’m Supergirl?”

Alex winced after taking another sip. She should have eaten something before drinking Wild Turkey 101 straight. “Yes?”

“Alex!”

“She still doesn’t know you’re Supergirl?” Like the fact that secret was kept might help. Honestly Alex was just grasping at straws. Trying to soothe and ache she’d gone and created herself.

“And you don’t think that might be a problem, when you, my sister, are dating her?”

“I mean, it hasn’t come up yet?”

“Because I’ve been on an asteroid five light years away! Did you just assume it was never gonna come up?”

To be honest Alex had. She’d assumed a lot of things. Some good. A lot bad. And she’d gone ahead and dated her sister’s best friend anyways.

Kara paced away, finally flopping onto Alex’s couch and wrapping her cape around her. “How did that even happen anyways? I thought you were still getting over Maggie—figuring out the whole baby thing. I thought she was with James. I thought she was straight!”

Alex left her drink on the kitchen counter and took a seat next to her sister. “Yeah I guess a lot happened.”

“I was gone for a month! How does Lena go gay in one month?”

“I mean I went gay in like…two days after I met Maggie.”

The side-eye Kara cast suggested that comment did not help.

Alex ran her hand through her hair. Her fingers grazed over the still tender scar just above her hairline.

She sighed. “Okay. I guess…I could tell you.”

“I really don’t want to hear about my sister having sex with my best friend.”

“About how we started dating. Oh my god why would I tell you about the sex?”

“There’s been sex?!” Kara looked scandalized.

“Do you want to know what happened in the last month or not?”

“Just no sexy bits.”

“Fine. No sexy bit.”

## ***

Lena Luthor walked into the DEO looking likes she was made of sex.

_“I said no sexy bits! And also no one talks like that!”_

It was…unusual to have Lena Luthor simply stride into the DEO. The billionaire scientists with legs for days and eyes like a sparkling lagoon—

_“Oh my goooooooood Alex.”_

Lena Luthor did not make a habit of stopping by the DEO. Lena Luthor, as far as Alex knew, **hated** the DEO. She’d tolerated collaboration when they’d been working to stop Reign and save Sam, but otherwise she was repulsed by the idea of an all powerful government agency with little to no oversight and a tendency to handle problems extrajudicially.

Which was probably fair.

But Lena Luthor also had a habit of being extra judicial herself. She’d made Kryptonite despite it being illegal (and dangerous). She’d set up a trap to capture illegal arms dealers, even secretly tried to stop Reign all by herself. So Alex didn’t exactly find her assessment of the DEO fair.

And she was honestly surprised when the woman strode into the DEO casually glancing at her phone and pausing (in the midst of an agent interrogating her on how she’d gotten in) to shoot off an email.

Lena Luthor didn’t care she’d just invaded a secure government site. Didn’t care someone was going to get taken to task for her intrusion. Instead she stood in the center of the DEO like she owned it.

_“Not with L Corps tax write offs.”_

It was deeply, deeply irritating.

Alex was not in the best place. After Reign. After Winn and Mon-El flying off to the future. After J’onn retiring and putting her in charge. After Kara taking a real sabbatical to visit her mom. She was lonely and cranky and Lena Luthor waltzing in did not improve her mood.

Lena smiled, smugly and with no small amount of hautiness, when she spied Alex. “Agent Danvers. Just the woman I was looking for.”

Questions before beratings. “How did you get up the elevator?”

“Your agents downstairs will let anyone through if they’re mean enough.”

“How many cried?”

“Only one. Is there some place we could talk?”

Lena did not wait for a yes. Instead she marched straight for the conference room—leaving Alex trailing after her and hoping no one noticed.

Alex clicked the door shut. “The Reign issue is over with Lena.” She was keeping her voice low. “You can’t just waltz into the DEO whenever you feel like it.”

Lena pursed her lips, crossing her arms and giving Alex one of those imperious looks Luthors seemed to be born with. “You never had problems with James coming by.”

“James is different. He’s—“

One raised eyebrow told Alex her excuse wouldn’t work. So she went for the truth. “He’s not a Luthor.”

“Charming.”

“So is your secret development of kryptonite.”

That earned her two eyes rolled dramatically. “I get it. You and Supergirl are best friends and she’s still mad at me. But you’re also the sister of **my** best friend and she made it very clear that why she was on this reporting trip to Argo City I was to come to you.”

“Kara said come to me if you had problems?” Alex found that…difficult to believe.

Lena fidgeted. “Of a DEO-like nature yes. Other things I’m just going to have to wait a month aren’t I?“

“Unless she decides to move there.”

“Why would the Kryptonians just let a human live there permanently—why would Kara want to live there permanently?”

Alex sighed, realizing they’d gotten off topic.

_“Doesn’t sound off topic to me,” Kara muttered._

“So what’s the problem?”

Lena tossed a file across the table. There wasn’t a lot in it. Just a series of coordinates. Alex glances at them and then up at Lena.

Lena’s chin was jutted out. Nerves, Alex realized. “I have reason to believe that’s an off the books research facility my brother funded with L Corp money.”

“You don’t know?”

She shook her head. “There’s almost not data available on it. Just coordinates periodically broadcasted on an encrypted network he’d previously used.”

“Secretive.”

“Agreed.”

She snapped the file shut, coordinates already memorized. “You want the DEO to investigate.”

Lena reached across the table and pulled the file back, sliding it into her purse. “I was actually hoping to ask for your help specifically Alex. I want to go see what my brother was doing, and having someone I trust, who also happens to have a fancy super powered suit, seems beneficial.”

“Not James? Your boyfriend with the fancy super powered suit?”

She flushed. “We...that’s not an option. Look, I might not like the DEO, but it can’t be all bad if it employs you as it’s…”

“Director.” Alex sat a little taller, remembering not for the first time that she was, technically, in charge of everything. “I can get a strike team together in an hour—“

“Just…I’d actually prefer this to be reconnaissance for now. If this site has been off the grid since before my brother’s arrest they’ll have no idea he and I aren’t on friendly terms. If I went in with a—“ her eyes scanned Alex’s form. “A bodyguard they wouldn’t blink.”

“And if they do know then we’ve walked into a trap.”

“This facility has been floating around the arctic with no connection to the outside world for years. It’s hard to find on satellites most of the time. Whatever’s happening there it doesn’t involve the news, and if we bomb it, or invade we risk releasing something as dangerous as he is. Or worse. We risk losing some crucial research.”

“You consider the research more important than some doomsday device?”

“He could have the cure for cancer out there.”

“All the same, I think sending a team is better bet than the two of us. Thanks Lena,” she stood to escort Lena out, “we’ll handle it from here.”

Lena had the nerve to chuckle. “I thought you might say that. Which is why the last three sets of coordinates weren’t on the list I just showed you. You want to investigate Lex’s research facility it’s on my terms.”

Now it was Alex squaring her jaw and wondering just how much trouble she’d get in for bagging and interrogating one of the richest women in the world.

Lena continued to smirk—irritatingly pleased with herself.

## ***

Which is how Alex found herself fidgeting on a plane to Norway. Lena had offered her private jet, but Alex had refused (government agents didn’t take those kinds of hand outs) which meant she had two flights and thirty hours of traveling compared to Lena’s just under twelve on her jet.

The fun part was the National City to JFK leg stuck between what she could only presume were two body builders. The baby the screamed all the way from JFK to Heathrow was practically a lullaby afterwards.

When she got to the hostel (Lena was in a hotel with suites and concierges and private entrances) Alex collapsed onto the thin mattress and tried hard to ignore the texts blowing up her phone.

Then the calls started.

Without moving any other part of her body she blindly reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and hit SEND. “Hello?”

Her voice must have been muffled by the mattress because Lena seemed confused. “Alex?”

“Yeah.”

“You finally made it to Oslo?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you?”

“Sleep?”

“That’s the name of your hotel? I’ll have my driver come pick you up. We don’t have to leave until six tomorrow morning so I thought we’d go do some site seeing.”

“No. Sleep is what I’m doing.”

“It’s eleven in the morning.”

“Not in Southern California.”

“Alex if you sleep your internal clock will be ruined.”

Alex moaned, because it was better than admitting Lena was right.

“There’s a Viking museum I thought we could visit. And a lovely sculpture park.”

“Will they have benches?”

“Yes. And coffee.”

Alex reluctantly gave Lena the name of her hostel and then went and took a shower. Her hair was still wet, drops of water running down the back of her neck, when there was a knock on her door.

“It’s open,” she called. Her boots were being kind of rude about going back on her feet and the laces didn’t seem to want to lace up right.

The door opened to admit a completely overdressed Lena Luthor, replete in heels and a coat that probably cost a few months of Alex’s rent.

“Alex, you’re staying in a hostel.”

“I’m aware. Federal budget has a limit on how much I can spend a night, and this was the best I can do.”

“The showers are public.”

“Toilets too.”

Lena shuddered.

“At least my room is private. I don’t have to threaten anyone if they look at my gun.”

Lena’s eyes flickered over to the roller board on Alex’s bed. Then back to Alex. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with me. I have a whole separate bedroom, and I guarantee the mattress isn’t made of an inch of twenty year old foam.”

“Tempting, but government agent.”

“They don’t have to know.”

“I’d know.”

“Oh my god, you’re the actually honest civil servant. I thought you were a myth.”

She finished her laces and pulled herself up, ignoring the fatigue that seemed to make all her muscles and joints groan. “On you limo ride over did you happen to see a coffee shop? Because if I don’t get some caffeine soon I’m going to be that civil servant that passes out on the sidewalk.”

Lena actually laughed at the bad joke. Which would have surprised Alex more, until she remembered Lena laughing at Kara’s cornball jokes too.

_“Hey!”_

The coffee was fine. The museum—three Viking ships recovered from burial mounds—was neat. “I have a friend who’s been there,” Alex said.

She didn’t really know why she wanted to impress Lena Luthor with a mention of a time traveller. But she liked the way Lena looked at her out the side of her eye. “Ninth century Norway?”

“Maybe? She’s the captain of a time traveling ship from another earth and she definitely mentioned a thing involving Vikings.”

Lena scoffed.

“No, I am serious.”

“You happen to have a friend who travels between parallel earths and travel through time?

“The earth stuff wasn’t on purpose. Nazis kidnapped us to their world.”

“And here I thought aliens from the year 3000 were something new. The DEO travels between earths?”

“Nope. Just, uh, Supergirl and I. A superhero friend of hers was getting married. Then the Nazis showed up. It was a whole thing.”

Lena studied her, to the point that Alex briefly worried she’d given something away. “You and Supergirl are...close?”

She couldn’t pinpoint Lena’s tone. Couldn’t figure out if she was intimating something. So she just nodded. “We have been ever since she joined the DEO.”

“Is Kara okay with it? You and Supergirl being friends I mean.”

Alex blinked. She’d...honestly never considered that.

_“We’re the same person Alex. Of course I’m okay with it.”_

Alex shrugged. “I guess.”

“I always wondered how she knew her. It’s through you?”

She shrugged again. “Yeah—can we maybe not talk about my sister and best friend, who are currently five light years away.”

“You think Supergirl won’t come back.”

Alex knew Supergirl would. She knew her sister would! Kara’s return was never up for debate.

But something still stung. Maybe. Or maybe she was missing Kara so badly she was worried she’d say something. Reveal something.

Lena at least relented. Instead they talked about Vikings and then radiology. Then they went to another museum. And other. Eventually they were eating fish in a restaurant that wasn’t nearly nice enough for Lena and her outfit and talking biochemistry.

It had been...eons since Alex had talked science and not just performed it on others. She didn’t have Lena or Winn’s knack for mechanical engineering. She wasn’t a genius like them or her parents.

_“Alex…”_

Okay, she **was** more talented than most, and it seemed to surprise Lena. Who probably thought of Alex as Kara’s meathead sister.

In fact Lena laughed. “I know you do science over at the DEO, but I had no idea you were so...”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think there’s a way to safely finish that sentence.”

Lena chuckled, ducking her head and slipping a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I suppose so. You’ll have to forgive me though. I thought you were just a government agent who happened to have an impressive undergrad degree.”

“Oh I am.”

“You’re clearly more.” Lena’s watched her over her glass as she sipped her wine. “Why were you out in the field? Why are you—whatever they have you doing now? A mind like yours could change the world in a lab.”

“High praise.”

“I’m serious.”

Alex prodded her fish, which had come on the bone and was already starting to dry out. “I don’t know. I guess—I always knew I couldn’t be as good at it as my parents.” Lena opened her mouth to protest and Alex quickly said, “I hate math. Like a lot. I can do it, I can do the science too, but the minute I was recruited into the DEO I knew the lab wasn’t it for me.”

“You like the action.”

Alex shrugged. “Not a lot of action in astrobiology.”

“You’ll have to stop by L Corp’s astrobiology lab sometime. Let me change your mind.” The way Lena said it should have set off a bell or two for Alex. But it didn’t. Because the whole being gay for like—two years.

_”Alex Lena was not flirting with you.”_

Lena was, in hindsight, definitely flirting with Alex.

But Alex soldiered on, oblivious. “What about you. Why the boardroom?”

“Because my brother loved excitement so much he built a robot army and tried to kill Superman.”

Alex’s chin rested on her fist. “You know, I forgot that for a little while.”

“That my brother is a genocidal lunatic?”

“That you were a Luthor.”

Alex wasn’t one to regret calling it like she saw it. But she felt a sudden pang when she watched those words wash over Lena. Privately Alex had always assumed part of Lena’s “do gooder” thing was an act—a way to get the rest of the world on a Luthor’s side for the most selfish of reasons.

But in the moment it was clear it wasn’t all about appearances.

“Sorry,” she said slowly.

“It’s fine.”

It wasn’t. “No, it’s not. You’ve proven time and again you have everyone’s best interest at heart.”

“Ah.”

Lena’s finger tapped against her empty glass and Alex filled it out of habit.

“But my brother thinks he has the world’s best interest at heart too, doesn’t he? Every villain thinks they’re right.”

“Sure, but you only get labeled a villain by other people. And you’re not one.”

“And you’re not an idiot in the shadow of her intellectual betters.”

Alex laughed, surprised by the noise that erupted from her mouth. Then she topped of her own wine. “To our insanely huge baggage.”

## ***

After dinner they walked back to Alex’s hostel. Lena’s stride was sure despite the heels she’d been wearing all afternoon, but she huddled close to Alex. It was bitterly cold and only their respective bravado was doing anything to keep them warm.

But eventually the cold won out and they stepped into the first open door they could just to get away from the bite. Alex didn’t know what possessed her but she reached out to run her hands up and down Lena’s wool clad arms as if to offer warmth.

And Lena didn’t shy away from the touch. Instead she reached up and tugged on Alex’s toboggan, her chilly fingers glanced across her neck and—

_”Ew.”_

It had to have been the wine. A lot of wine and not a lot of food all day. That and the cold—which was probably why there was a red flush high on Lena’s cheeks.

The store owner called out to them in Norwegian and Alex ducked her head. “Guess we should buy something huh?”

“It would only be polite.”

They bought a bottle of akvavit and the owner, an old man with an even older beard, eyed them as he rang it up.

When they got back to the hostel and Lena pulled her phone out to call her car Alex waggled the bottle. “Can’t let me drink alone.”

It had to be the alcohol.

Lena’s finger hovered over the call button. Her lower lip, bright lipstick still miraculously intact, caught between her teeth.

It had to be the alcohol. That was the only way to explain the feelings those lips suddenly inspired.

_”I don’t need to know this “_

If anything was to blame for what happened next it was the akvavit. It was hurried. Messy. Teeth and languid sensations and when it was done Lena was boneless on Alex’s bed and Alex was having a great afterglow ruined by panic attack.

## ***

“You guys hooked up because you were **drunk**?!” Kara was no longer entirely sitting. Instead she was perched on the edge of Alex’s couch and a second away from shooting off of it.

Alex winced. “Only the first time. And, it wasn’t just the alcohol. I mean it was mainly the alcohol, but—“

## ***

Lena was the first one to say something. And it was not great for Alex’s ego. Because it was a sob.

Alex stared at the ceiling—not really sure what to say. The sex had been nice. Not—no one was Maggie. But it hadn’t been bad.

“Sorry,” Lena said. She wiped at her face with the heel of her hand. “That was just. I haven’t...”

Alex’s heart raced. “Ever?!”

“No! No I have. Just not—I didn’t realize how much it would make me miss James.”

“Oh.”

Yeah it had been really bad.

Alex tugged her shirt back on, and surreptitiously looked around the room for her underwear. “You’ve both been pretty quiet about the breakup.

“He left me for his ex-fiancee—Lois Lane’s sister.”

“Wait. He just—walked out? That doesn’t sound like James.”

“No. No it was after the world almost ended— **again**. She came back and asked him, and then we went out for the most awkward dinner of my life together, and then I realized he still had feelings for her and he needed to deal with it. Without me.”

“Okay but that doesn’t mean you two broke up. That could just mean—“

“We are **not** on a break Alex. We’re over. And apparently it’s going to take me longer to come to terms with that than I thought.”

Alex chewed on her lip and stared at the popcorn ceiling. “I’m still not over Maggie. Not really.”

“It’s been a year.”

Lena at least didn’t sound like she was judging Alex when she said it. She just sounded confused.

Alex laughed like it would cover up her own embarrassment. “Try getting engaged to the the first girl you sleep with after realizing you’re gay. It’s not just—“

“Sorry. That wasn’t...of course—wait.”

Lena sat up, the sheet falling to her waist revealing—

_”Alex I can throw you out the window and you won’t die, but also you won’t like it.”_

Lena sat up. “Does this mean—am I only the second woman you’ve ever been with?”

“No,” Alex said, protesting a little too stridently. “No, there have been others. Since. Nothing serious.” Okay only one and she was a time traveling assassin, but Lena didn’t need to know any of that.

Lena nodded. Though it didn’t really look like she’d paid attention after confirming she wasn’t Alex’s first.

“I’m sorry about James,” Alex said. She slipped out of bed and scooted into her jeans. “Really.” She pulled on her shirt.

“And I’m sorry about Maggie. “

## ***

“And I’m sorry you two just drunkenly hooked up, and she and James broke up because Lucy came back, and—Lena’s bi?” Kara was no longer pretending to sit. She was back to standing. Really more a pacing.

Alex considered grabbing another drink. “Yes?”

“Alex, this is not a ‘yes?’ This is a yes or a no or—I need details!”

“I’m giving you details and you keep telling me to shut up!”

“You’re giving me **sex** details. I need emotional details. Gossip details. I need to know how a hook up in a Norwegian hostel turned into the three of us getting dinner in like—two hours.”


	2. Chapter 2

Lena went back to her hotel not long after the...disaster. Alex, being an idiot, went to bed. So she woke up the next morning dehydrated and hung over. Her eyes felt gummy and her mouth dry and stinky.

She made her way to the small private airport where Lena was decked out in couture winter wear. She eyed Alex and smiled tightly. They did not talk about the sex then. Lena gave Alex an enormous bottle of water and a very small cup of coffee.

“Drink,” she instructed, not actually looking at Alex.

Alex mutely accepted the drinks, chugging one and nursing the other as she sat on the floor, leaning back against her bag.

Eventually their plane was wheeled out of the hanger and the paperwork was done and they climbed aboard.

Where they, again, did not speak. Impressive as it was just the two of them in the little plane.

From there they had to take a helicopter to the actual floating research station. That required more waiting. With the sun threatening to set before they even took off.

“I always hate traveling this far north,” Lena said into her coffee. “They never have actual days and nights up here.”

Alex wasn’t sure what to say to that. Instead she stared at the radar and willed the helicopter to be prepped for take off before the oncoming storm arrived. If it wasn’t ready they’d be stuck in the middle of nowhere all night.

_”As someone who does not want to hear about more ill advised hook ups on a frozen tundra—please let the helicopter be ready.”_

Perhaps feeling that someone, far into the future, would be crossing their fingers in the hopes that the helicopter was ready to go before the storm, it was actually...ready to go before the storm.

Finally, again, they were in the air. Again Lena flew and Alex sat in the copilot seat, and again neither of them talked.

“This is how we die,” Alex muttered into her headset.

“I’m an excellent pilot.”

“No, I mean going into a potentially dangerous situation while everything’s...awkward.”

“Nothing’s awkward.”

“We slept together Lena. You cried. We haven’t spoken to each other once despite traveling together for like the entire day.”

“I thought it was one of those friendly silences.”

Alex stared at her.

Lena continued to look way busier than she needed to piloting the helicopter.

“Look it doesn’t have to be a deal,” Lena finally said hurriedly.

“It isn’t a deal—“

“Oh yes it is. You’re making it one.”

“How—I’m just trying to have an honest conversation.”

“About a drunken hook up with your sister’s best friend! It happened, it was fine. Now we go around pretending it didn’t happen and making sure Kara never finds out.”

“You **cried**.”

“Oh my god.” Lena did a double take—looking at Alex like she was a living scandal—which rich coming from a Luthor. “You’ve never had a drunken hook up before.”

Alex scoffed. “I’ve…I’ve had drunk hook ups.”

Lena was still staring. 

“Hooking up…all…the time. With the anonymous…carefree sex.” She swallowed. “No strings. Because strings are bad. Like emotions.”

_”Oh Alex.” Kara had covered her face in second hand mortification._

Yeah. It was bad.

“I’ve had a…A drunken hook up. One.”

“It was the time traveling assassin wasn’t it?”

“You know who it was isn’t important?” Alex’s voice shot up to an embarrassingly high octave.

Lena continued to stare at her with the kind of pity usually reserved for people who were failing math and didn’t know it.

“So clearly we don’t need to talk about the sex,” Alex said.

Lena’s eyes returned to the dials on the cockpit. “Oh I think it, like this conversation, is best forgotten. Forever.”

“And ever.”

“Amen.”

## **\\*

Kara finally pulled her hands away from her mouth, which she’d covered in horror. “Alex that was worse than the first part of Never Been Kissed.”

She shrugged.

“It wasn’t that bad was it?”

“Oh if anything I’m coming off much cooler in that retelling.”

“Okay. But then. How? Because if it was that bad you should have moved to another country and changed your name by now. Or like had J’onn wipe Lena’s memory.”

Kara suddenly reached out for Alex’s arm. “You didn’t have J’onn wipe her memory did you?”

“No! I mean if everything that happened after hadn’t I might have. But it didn’t. Because we landed on what was basically a giant oil rig floating in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and were met by…not the warmest of welcoming parties.”

## **\\*

A severe looking scientist watched them descend from the helipad itself, the wind buffeting her and causing her white lab coat to billow.

She had four guards with her. All armed. All masked. All men.

Alex and Lena shared a look, but neither actually said what they were thinking. Until the helicopter touched down and Lena killed the rotors. “Follow my lead,” she said just before taking off her headset.

Alex ducked her head and avoided looking at anyone or anything. Instead she stepped out of the helicopter and made herself busy getting their suitcases. Or her duffle and Lena’s two suitcases, and a backpack.

When she came around the side of the helicopter, bags tugging on her shoulders, Lena was already deep in conversation with the scientist, who had gone from severe to cautiously friendly in the face of Lena’s bright smile.

“This is my assistant,” Lena said, motioning to Alex. “Alex Schott.”

_Kara snorted. ”She made you Winn’s sister.”_

The scientist did not offer to shake her hand. 

“I must confess, after so many years without your brother’s input I’d nearly thought he’d forgotten about us.” The scientist was trying to sound like she was joking, but there was no hiding the annoyance in her tone.

“Oh no.” Lena seemed relaxed despite the lies she casually spewed. “Lex has just been very busy. Fighting an alien invasion doesn’t leave much free time.”

The scientist laughed. “No, it doesn’t.” A little mention of their common interest in genocide seemed to cheer the scientist up real fast. “I’m happy to bring you up up to date with our work but I will need to verify some things first.”

“Of course.” 

Lena was, Alex thought, a very accomplished liar.

“46 and 52 will escort you to the guest quarters to sort your luggage, and then we’ll commence with the DNA test.”

“DNA test?” It had just squeaked out of Alex and both women looked at Alex like she was an idiot.

“I need to confirm that Ms. Luthor is who she claims to be, and I need to confirm that you’re not an alien.”

“You,” Alex chuckled. “You think I’m an alien?”

“I think Superman and his kind are far cleverer then they’d like the world to know.”

Alex considered that they’d never seen a 15 year old alien try to pass a high school world history exam.

_”I did pass!”_

Or use a TV remote.

_”Look TV remotes are not intuitive when you’re used to using crystals. And you shouldn’t need that many remotes just to turn on the TV!”_

Alex, and Lena, were apparently stuck in a research station dedicated to the eradication of all aliens on earth. Naturally they both smiled and let the armed guards escort them to a suite that Lex Luthor clearly enjoyed using when he wasn’t trying to destroy Superman.

Besides the plush rug and expensive looking bed there was also a grand piano—which Alex was confused by. Because the research station seemed to have been a drilling rig in a previous life and had narrow hallways and doors. None of which the piano could have fit through.

Lena’s fingers danced nimbly over the keys before she turned back to their guards.

“Shall we commence with the tests. I’d really like to get up to speed.”

The guards, robotic in their behavior, merely nodded. A third appeared at the door with a hard case. He set it on the ground and opened it to reveal an entire miniature lab. One that should have weighed three or four hundred pounds easily.

_”The plot thickens.”_

He approached Lena, took blood, and began testing it in the makeshift lab. 

46 or 52—she never actually got which was which. Retrieved what looked like an early, and large, prototype of L Corp’s alien tester. Without asking he took Alex’s wrist and put her entire hand on the device.

She glanced back at Lena to find her standing with her arms crossed and trying not to look as uncomfortable as she cleary was.

The machine’s LED flashed green.

“Do I pass?”

46 or 52 didn’t respond. He returned the system back to the case and rejoined the other guard at the door.

The third one finished his test and closed up the makeshift lab, leaving without even acknowledging Lena or Alex.

The two guards joined him.

As soon as the door was closed Alex spun around. “I think things are a little weird.”

“Very.” Lena looked thoughtful. “Why can’t we see their faces?”

“I mean the testing our DNA—“

Lena waved her off. “That’s standard Lex. He had a thing about aliens as soon as Superman told Lois Lane he was one.”

“Good thing you didn’t try to bring Supergirl then.”

“She was never an option.” She tapped her finger against her chin. “Why are they protecting those guards’ identities? These people have all been stuck in this lab without outside contact for years. They shouldn’t need to cover their faces.”

“My guess it was for our benefit. Intimidate us—same with that little portable lab.”

Lena marched towards the door, looking way too determined for Alex’s comfort. She darted in front of her. 

“What are you doing?”

“About to have another conversation with Debbie Donovan.”

_”Who is that again?”_

“The scientist from the helipad?”

_”You didn’t say that.”_

What Alex did or didn’t say didn’t matter. She was busy trying to stop Lena from marching out into the hallway and blowing what flimsy little cover they had. “You can’t just go out there.”

Lena pushed past her. “I’m a Luthor. If I don’t go out there they’ll think something’s wrong.” A little louder as she pushed the door open she said, “Come along Miss Schott.”

46 and 52 were actually waiting for them on the other side of the door, and without comment escorted them to the bridge, which was manned by people with actual faces. Their escort took up position by the door they’d come in through. Debbie Donovan was warmer this time, taking Lena’s hand and pumping it enthusiastically. 

“You’ll have to forgive my reticence earlier Ms. Luthor. I hadn’t even been aware you’d been briefed on our project until your helicopter landed.”

Lena looked around the room, as if she was too important to even hear Donovan’s apology

“I appreciate your devotion to security. As does my brother. Now don’t you think it’s time I was caught up?”

“Besides our monthly reports?”

Lena looked downright imperious. “Yes.”

Donovan then immediately launched into a a spiel on the project’s budget that threatened to glaze Alex’s eyes over.

_”Aren’t you head of the DEO?”_

Sure Alex was head it the DEO, but part of going on cool missions to secret bases in the middle of the Arctic Ocean was to escape budget meetings.

So she wandered the bridge, pretending to study the clouds and how they met the horizon. The men and women at their stations seemed trained to ignore them—even though they had to be the first new people at the facility in years. Their eyes were fixed on their monitors. Their faces entirely flat.

“The view’s nice at least,” Alex said to a pretty woman with strawberry blond hair. 

The woman didn’t even acknowledge her. Her fingers continued to twist dials below her monitor. Which appeared to be one of three different stations handling power management for the entire base.

A lot of power.

But the diagrams were all for wiring. Not clear enough to get a sense of the facility. That would be fire suppression. Where a man with a whispy goatee stood.

Alex tried to make her way casually to the console, eyes on the horizon and rarely on the monitors. But when she was barely a foot away a hand nearly jerked her arm out of her socket. One of the guards was holding her back, the other, still at the door, had drawn his weapon and aimed it at her.

Lena cried out in alarm and Donovan stepped between the guard with the gun and Alex. 

Not a single member of the bridge crew moved from their stations.

Alex held her hands up in surrender, adopting that goofy naive thing Kara did so well. 

_”Hey!”_

“Sorry. Sorry I was just enjoying the view.”

“Dr. Donovan is there any particular reason your men are assaulting my assistant.”

“You’ll have to forgive them Ms. Luthor. They’re very good, but they can be zealous. Ms. Schott was it? Perhaps you should stay closer to your employer.”

“I was just lo—“

“Now.” Donovan said it with the kind of forced politeness that made it clear it wasn’t a request.

The bridge tour over Donovan escorted them down eight levels, not mentioning the guards’ behavior even once.

Lena, too, didn’t bring it up either.

Alex rolled with the punches, sticking close to Lena and ducking her head as Donovan pointed out the sleeping quarters and cafeteria and all the pump rooms and engine rooms and server rooms that seemed to keep the station running.

“We grow all our own food,” she noted pointing to a room lit by the pale glow of sunlamps. More workers robotically watered plants and harvested vegetables.

Their final destination was a small locker room. Hazmat suits hung on the wall. Only level C. The guards stayed outside the room and when Alex tried to pass they stepped in front of her, causing Lena to sigh. “Doctor we’re going to have a problem if your staff continues to be so overzealous with my assistant. Lex and I dictate who sees what. Not,” she eyed the guards. “These things.”

“I understand Ms. Luthor. But what I’m showing you is very sensitive. I can’t just allow some personal assistant in here.”

Lena’s eyes narrowed and she stalked closer, looking intimidating despite the fluffy sweater and thick boots she’d been wearing all day. “Do you take me for a fool? I’m Lena Luthor. The woman who cleans my kitchen spent twenty years running a two-Michelin star restaurant. My driver is a former F1 driver. Ms. Schott has more degrees than your entire security staff put together. All of them in science. Now tell these imbeciles to Stand. Down.”

_”Yikes.”_

It was impressive. Pressed Alex would have admitted it was attractive too.

_”No.”_

What wasn’t impressive was the tech in the clean room. Red sun grenades and masks that would disrupt a Kryptonian’s vision but look normal to a human. Tech the DEO had had for years.

Alex kept quiet as their guide took them through each piece. Lena, if she realized it was all old junk, didn’t say a word.

The guards had remained outside but the few researchers in the room were as quiet and focused on their tasks as the bridge crew had been.

Robotic.

It creeped Alex out, but this deep into the facility there wasn’t much she could do besides pretend to be interested and stand close to Lena.

Lena’s eyes wandered over everything. “I’ll admit this is all very interesting doctor, but I must confess, it seems outdated.”

The researchers all paused at their stations. Donovan stood a little taller. “Excuse me?”

Lena was unconcerned with the ripple of unease moving through the room. 

“It seems out date. I was CTO of LuthorCorp for years, and most of these projects were developed by my team. Including that positively ancient detection device you used on my assistant.”

“Ms. Luthor…”

“I find it hard to believe my brother would be wasting his money—our money—on this. So tell me,” She stepped closer. “Where are the real projects? Where’s the work with Cadmus?”

Alex was grateful for the mask and goggles, and happy with the thick gloves. They hid her reactions, which she did a terrible job of hiding herself. 

_”Cadmus!”_

Yes, it was deeply alarming.

Donovan seemed just as startled as Alex, or anyone she might be recounting the story to. “He told you about Cadmus?”

Lena’s grin behind her mask must have been savage for the way it deformed the visible parts of her face. “It’s the family business Doctor. I didn’t come here for the toys we give those anti-alien fanatics. I came here to see the progress on the real work.”

“O—of course Ms. Luthor. It’s only—“

Lena’s hands were now behind her back, her chest jutted out, chin raised imperiously. 

“It’s only those parts of the research station aren’t accessible at the moment.”

“They’re accessible for me.”

“No! No I mean they’re not accessible for anyone.” Donovan swallowed. “The protocols to maintain sterility there are quite advanced. It will be at least another day before the decontamination room is fully decontaminated and anyone can enter.”

“Then in the interim, Doctor, I suggest you find something that will keep my attention. Something I haven’t seen before.” She spun on the heel of her hazmat boot and made a beeline for the exit. “Come along Ms. Schott.”

Too numb to do much else, Alex followed.

## **\\*

“Wait, I though Lena didn’t know what was happening in the facility. Alex how did she know they were doing Cadmus work there.”

“A question I had myself. Kara,” she looked at her sister, who was back on the couch with her cape around her like a cozy blanket. “I was terrified all the way back to Lena’s room. Like I’d walked into a trap.”

“Right, but also Lena lied—“

“Exactly. So I was terrified, but more than that I was pissed.”

## **\\*

“Cadmus!” Alex had to fight to keep her voice down. To calm her nerves. To lower her blood pressure. To not murder her sister’s best friend.

Lena was in the middle of unpacking couture winter wear for dinner. She paused, something more shoulder revealing than it needed to be, clutched in her hands.

“You knew this was a Cadmus facility,” Alex asked.

“Oh of course not Alex. We wouldn’t have come in like this if I had. I’m not an idiot.”

“Oh I don’t think you’re an idiot. Because down in that room you made it seem like you knew exactly what we’d find here.”

Lena returned the blouse to the suit case and threw the other one up onto the bed. “I had an idea—“

“That it was Cadmus.”

“Yes! Of course.” She slammed the suitcase closed and flopped onto the bed beside it. “My brother didn’t fall far from the anti-alien tree you know. He and my mother passionately hate aliens.”

“I’m aware of how many times they’ve tried to kill Supergirl and her cousin.”

_”So many Alex. So many.”_

“Well then you know he had to have been supplying my mother’s group. And a place this well hidden? It had to have been involved too.”

“With Cadmus. Right. But do you know—do you know what they do?”

“Yes,” Lena crossed her arms. “I’m very aware of what my mother and her cronies have done to the aliens of National City—“

“Not just the aliens. What do you think happened to my father?”

Lena’s hands dropped into her lap in surprise. Her mouth working but nothing coming out. 

“Or Hank Henshaw? Or Supergirl? Or me? I mean those monsters have either tried to recruit or murder me multiple times—“

“Alex, I had no idea.”

_”To be fair to Lena she probably really hasn’t. We do not talk Cadmus. Like ever. As Kara or Supergirl.”_

And maybe if Alex had had her sister there to remind her of what Lena did and did not know she might have been less upset.

As it was she was fuming.

“And now you’ve put me in one of their bases, Lena. If they try to use more than that scanner. DNA. Facial recognition—“

Lena was back on her feet again, hands reaching for Alex. “I didn’t know—“

“Which is why you should have told me! Back in National City.”

Suddenly Lena’s hands were on Alex’s shoulders and she was close enough for Alex to see where her lipstick had worn away from her lips over the course of the day. “Alex,” Lena glanced down, before looking back up and pegging Alex with a bright gaze. “Alex I’m sorry. Okay? I didn’t know about you and Cadmus. I had no idea. If I had—“ She took in a deep breath. “This would be different.” Her fingers dug in. “But we can’t panic.”

“I’m not panicking.”

“Really because it feels like—“ Alex stepped out of Lena’s arms. “I’m not panicking, because I’m mad instead. Because I thought we had some measure of trust Lena.”

“We do.”

“Not enough.”

## **\\*

Kara was now leaning forward, chin on fist. “You flounced out didn’t you?”

“I did not—there was no flouncing Kara.”

“Uh huh. I’ve had fights with you. You flounce.”

“You flounce!”

“Because I learned it from you! And weren’t you and Lena sharing quarters on this evil Cadmus death trap? Where did you sleep?”

Alex sat a little taller. “I had my own room,” she said officiously.

## **\\*

“We don’t typically maintain guests quarters here. But this should suffice for you needs.”

Alex looked into the supply closet, complete with a wet mop and bucket full of…”water.”

“Is there…a cot?”

Donovan handed her a wad of fabric. “A hammock.” She started to take it back even as Alex reached for it. “Are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable sharing quarters with Ms. Luthor? There’s a second room…”

“She likes space,” Alex said, taking the hammock out of Donovan’s hand. “And I like…privacy. This is. Truly. Really. Perfect.”

_You slept in a hammock? In a supply closet?_

Alex was a trained agent of the DEO—she could sleep anywhere at any time.

_”Lena’s room had a piano.”_

And Alex’s had a healthy supply of chemicals for cleaning. And it did give her peace and quiet. Away from Lena. Away from what they’d done the night before. The dull drone of the research station was helpful white noise dulling out an awful lot of thoughts Alex didn’t need to be thinking now.

Irritated, but finally alone again, Alex used her bag as a pillow and leaned back in the hammock. There wasn't much to do when it was six o’clock at night, a storm was slowly settling over the station, and she’d flounced out of the room where her dinner was probably being served.

_”I knew it!”_

So she read and thought about how embarrassing it would be to go down to the cafeteria for food.

_”Forget embarrassing—intel Alex.”_

Intel, and Alex’s excellent training as a secret agent skilled in extracting information, is what did eventually lead her to the cafeteria.

And it was just as creepy as every other remotely public space she’d had access to. Robotic personnel consuming bland food with zero chatter.

“English,” Alex asked the group of people at her selected table. “Norsk? Svenska?”

No one spoke.

_”Seriously what is up with them. Are they zombies—Alex did you guys fight zombies without me?”_

Alex was interrupted from her attempt at interrogation by one of the guards who promptly stood over her.

“What about you big guy? I feeling a strong Russian vi—“

And that’s how Alex got her head slammed into the table by six feet and four inches of creepy mystery guard.

_”Alex!”_

Alex, being very durable for a human, didn’t even cry out when her nose started bleeding—

_”Okay addendum. No sexy bits and no overly gory bits about my sister getting beaten up while I was out of town.”_

Then he was dragging her out of her chair and shoving her against the wall, a hand so tight around her throat she couldn’t even speak.

_”That still feels a little too much—but I’ll allow it, because I am currently sitting across from you and know that you live.”_

“We do not speak,” the strawberry blond from the bridge said. She sat down quickly as another guard stalked towards her.

“Ever,” a large guy with little glasses said. Then he sat down as a third guard moved to hover over him.

Alex tried to focus on her own guard—difficult when she was pretty sure she was about to pass out. So she settled on a thumbs up to show she understood the protocol.

_”So what, they’re all hostages and act like robots so the creepy guards don’t kill them?”_

It seemed to Alex like maybe the staff of the facility weren’t entirely there of their own volition and were being controlled by the barbaric faceless guards.

Something Lena would want to know. Maybe even enough to convince her to get back up to the facility immediately.

But that wasn’t on the cards, because the guard, twisting Alex’s arm behind her back, then dragged her back to her stupid supply closet, tossing her to her knees and locking her in before she could even scramble back up onto her feet.

She pounded on the door anyways. “Not cool,” she shouted.

The guard made no effort to allow her back out.

## **\\*

“Wait I’m sorry, you get beaten up, and proof that you’re probably not the only one getting beaten up, and you just went back to the closet.”

“Okay, did you miss the part where I was dragged, Kara?”

“Right! Where was Lena during all of this?”

“Eating dinner in her quarters, completely ignorant to what I learned until—“

## **\\*

The door to the closet opened and Lena entered, dressed in the too classy for the location top from her first suitcase and carrying a tray of food.

“Why,” she asked as the door was shut behind her, “Do you have a guard, and is this a supply close—“

Alex stepped into Lena’s space before she could finish her question. Pulling her into her arms and kissing her like it'd been years.

_”That did not happen. One you never kiss as a distraction. Two, you are not smooth enough to pull off the ‘I have to kiss you as a distraction’ thing with Lena.”_

Oh no. Alex absolutely did kiss her. Good and long and thoroughly. It was an epic kiss. The kind people—Lena—would talk about later. Maybe even years later. Because not only were emotions heightened as they were under cover on a secret base full of their enemies, but Alex Danvers was an accomplished kisser—

_”How—“_

She seduced a cop when she was just a baby lesbian and the cop had a no baby lesbian rule.

_”Maggie was a special case you dork.”_

And a time traveling assassin.

_”Pretty sure the scotch did the seducing that time.”_

Whatever.

Alex kissed Lena, and Lena positively melted into her, dropping the tray of food with a loud clatter.

“What—“

She could barely finish speaking she was so confused. Possibly...aroused.

_”Okay. I get it! You kissed her and it was amazing.”_

Breathtaking.

“Pretty sure they’re listening,” Alex said against Lena’s open mouth. “Or they’d like to.”

“Oh,” Lena sighed, hands winding into Alex’s shirt. “So this is a distraction.”

Alex murmured an affirmative, her lips trailing from Lena’s lips to her cheek and then finally to her neck where she bit at the prominent tendon her teeth found.

_”Okay,” Kara interjected._

Lena sighed again. “Is there a reason you’re in a supply closet though—and is that a hammock?”

“They didn’t have enough room elsewhere. And the guard is because I asked too many questions at dinner.”

“And your nose.” Cool fingers lightly danced across her bruised nose. 

“You noticed?”

“Just before you kissed me. Is this,” her breath hitched. “How you seduced the time traveling assassin?”

“More scotch was involved there.”

Lena stepped back, alarm on her face.

“Consensual scotch!”

“How is scotch consensual or not?”

“I don’t—“

Lena laughed and then snaked her fingers through Alex’s hair to pull her in for another kiss.

It was really nice.

_”Yeah if the dopey look on your face right now is anything to go by.”_

“So,” Lena said between kisses. “They beat you up and imprisoned you for asking questions.”

“And I’m not the first one.”

“And the guards watch everything.”

“Yeah.”

“And,” Lena made a shuddering moan that was a little too enthusiastic for the fairly chaste necking Alex was engaged in. “And they’re probably listening.”

“I would—professionally I mean.”

“Then I'm going to distract them, tonight.”

“How?”

“Leave it to me...for now let’s just...give them a show.”

Alex leaned back. “Wait. Like...sex? Because I don’t think voyeurism is really a thing I’m into.”

“You’re turning down sex? With me? Because they might be watching?”

“Yes?”

Lena leaned into her. “Did I really just proposition you for sex to distract anyone spying on us?”

## **\\*

“Nope. Uh uh. I’m sorry. I refuse to believe any of that happened.”

Kara had gotten up off the couch and was in the kitchen pouring herself a glass of water.

“You kissing her because you panicked I can see—but nope to the rest.”

“Um. Who was there and is taking you out to dinner with their girlfriend later.”

“Oh I know. I still want to understand how you went from one night stand to that, but if you expect me to believe sexy kissing distractions played a part—“

“I swear to you they did.”

Kara sat her empty glass down on the counter. “She slapped you when you first kissed her didn't she?”

“No.”

“She shoved you and asked what you were doing.”

## **\\*

“Why did you just kiss me!” Lena was already rubbing at her lips. “I thought the whole point of never speaking about last night again was you _not_ kissing me.”

Alex swallowed and then looked down as the tray of food Lena had brought with her. “I—I wanted to distract the guard while the door was still open?”

“Then brush your teeth first.” Lena stuck her tongue out like exposure to air would clean it. “Is your spit ninety percent coffee?”

“Okay. Hey now. You know this whole facility already doesn't trust me and us having separate rooms probably made it worse.”

“So you kissed me?”

“If they think we’re having an affair and its messy they’re less likely to think that we’re here,” Alex lowered her voice. “To spy on them.”

Lena looked surprised. “That actually makes sense.”

_”Way more sense than your original story.”_

“So do we...keep kissing?”

Alex shrugged. “I mean neither of us are terrible at it.”

“No we’re just bad at everything that comes after.” She stepped back into Alex’s space and grabbed her nose. “What happened to your face?”

“Ow. Careful. A guard didn’t like me speaking at dinner.” She winced at her still aching nose. “Seriously who just grabs someone’s half broken nose like that?”

“It’s not broken. Bruised maybe.”

“Still—“

“Sorry,” Lena said. She cleared her throat. “And I brought you dinner.”

Still protecting her nose with one hand Alex took the tray with the other. “Thanks.”

“And about earlier. What you said about trust—“

“Pretty sure now isn’t the time Lena.” Her eyes darted towards the door.

Lena bit her lip and nodded. “Right. Of course. This would be a terrible time to discuss it. It’s just—“

“My nose is stopped up with coagulated blood and I have to eat this roll that’s so hard I actually thought it was a potato when you first brought it it. Can we not?”

“Of course.”

But no, Lena didn’t leave after what was a clear dismissal.

_”Yeah she’s real bad at social cues like that.”_

Instead she stood by the end of the hammock as Alex settled onto it and watched her gnaw on the ridiculously tough roll.

Alex eventually took pity on her and scooted over enough for her to take a seat on the hammock next to her.

“You, uh, talk to Sam,” Alex asked. Besides Kara, Sam and Ruby were two of the few people they had in common—and certainly the only ones that wouldn’t necessarily be an emotional land mine.

“Fairly frequently.” Lena was picking at her pants. “She’s still the CFO. She was actually the one that,” she lowered her voice, “noticed some of the financial irregularities that eventually led me here.”

“And she’s...good?”

“She and Ruby both are—you don’t talk to them?”

Alex shrugged.

“You were so close. I mean Ruby did—does still worship you.”

“Yeah, its more me and the whole furiously ticking biological clock thing.”

Lena looked confused. “You’re sick?”

“I want a kid Lena.”

“Right.” Lena was not getting it.

“And Ruby and her mom make that desire more acute?”

“Oh! Oh.” Lena’s hand fell onto Alex’s forearm. “Oh I understand now. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“Sometimes I wish Sam wasn’t straight either.”

Alex choked on her roll. “What?”

“You had a crush on her—“

“I didn’t—did not say that. She and Ruby just make me realize what I’m missing.”

“Oh.”

Alex did a double take. “Wait. Did you have a crush on Sam?”

“Have you seen her in one of those blazers with the sleeves rolled up?”

_”Are you seriously asking me to believe you bonded with Lena over how horny you both are for Sam?”_

Conversation about Sam and Ruby actually eased the tension between Alex and Lena, and when Lena rose a little later to return to her own much more spacious rooms she was wearing a charming smile. 

“You sure you don’t want to come back to the suite with actual beds?”

Alex had dropped her empty tray onto the ground and was kicking her feet up onto the hammock. “Nah. I think I’ll sleep here tonight. Maybe tomorrow?”

Lena chuckled. “Suit yourself.”

And Alex did. When Lena was gone she changed into her pajamas and fell into a not completely terrible sleep.

The storm picking up outside and the hum of the facilities engines were better than a white noise machine. Which was why the absence of those engines, in the middle of the night, caused Alex to stir.

The research station was completely quiet. Just the roar of the wind outside.

Dressed just in her henley and flannel bottoms Alex carefully stepped out into the corridor. Her guard was gone, and the only light was the dull red glow of lights the facility apparently used at night. A way to indicate the time when there was no porthole in sight.

Pressed between the door and the door frame Alex listened for something more.

There was just the eery silence.

There! A distant bang.

She looked back towards where Lena’s quarters and the other researchers were. 

Another bang!

Closing her door as softly as possible she toed down the corridor towards the noise.

Down stairs and over metal grates that bit into the soles of her feet.

Down and down.

Deeper and deeper.

The bang was consistent. Long slow gaps between each one. Steady. Solid.

But the closer she got the more she could feel each blow. They rumbled through her.

And when she was sure she was as close as she could be without seeing the source of the noise Alex found herself struck with fear. Which—Alex did not scare easily. Not when it came to her versus some kind of monster. 

Even unarmed Alex rarely felt terror.

But it hummed through her now. She might have trembled with it if she hadn’t been so focused on staying quiet. A whisper.

The next bang came, loud enough to ring in her ears.

She pressed her hand to her chest like it would be enough to calm her racing heart.

Carefully she looked around the corner. In time to see one of the guards, helmet and mask removed, hoist the biggest sledge hammer she’d ever seen and swing it into the side of what, she assumed, was one of the facilities engines.

The hammer was too big for his frame. Too heavy for a human. And he was too familiar. Dark hair slicked back. Tan skin that seemed just a little too flawless. The entire profile of his back was familiar and terrifying in that familiarity.

But she needed to see his face.

He brought the sledge hammer back. Prepared for another blow…

And Alex called out to him.

_”What! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT.”_

She should have been scared, but the guard stopped mid-swing and turned around. Confirming why everything about him seemed so familiar. 

“Superman?”


	3. Chapter 3

“I'm confused.”

Kara did look very confused.

“Why was Superman in Lex Luthor’s evil research compound, and more importantly why would my sister, a very smart woman trained in espionage, call out to a man who may or may not be Superman?”

Alex jogged over to the sink for a glass of water. “I didn't.”

“You just said you did!”

“Yeah because I wanted some water and needed a break.”

The water was exceedingly refreshing. The texts buzzing along on her phone were probably nice too. She pulled it out just to check.

And with a woosh her phone was gone and Kara was on the other side of the apartment.

“You just wanted to text your girlfriend. Oh my god when have either of you used this many emojis?”

As Kara started scrolling through Alex’s very private texts with Lena, Alex darted around the kitchen counter, bound over the couch, and tried to reclaim what was hers.

Kara just stopped her with a palm to the face, firmly holding her back as she continued to scroll. “Seriously this is nauseating—and why don't you talk about me?”

She finally loosened her grip enough for Alex to dash under her arm and snatch her phone away. “Because that would be weird. Nosy much?”

“Yes. Because you are taking so long with this story!”

“Well excuse me for liking a linear narrative.”

“Give me something at least. Like a spoiler. To tide me over.”

“Fine. I told you I didn't actually call out, but it really did look like Superman down there. Only it wasn’t. It was a clone.”

## **\\*

Hidden in the shadows Alex had a clear look at the guard without his mask and he was identical to Clark. Only he couldn't actually see her and he was sweating.

Kryptonians, it should be known, did not sweat.

_”Not on Earth at least.”_

It was annoying.

A man who looked like Superman, but didn’t have the exact same set of powers meant exactly one thing.

_”A Superman from another earth._

Meant exactly two things.

Either a Superman from another earth—which would be ridiculous because why even would his powers be different? Wouldn’t the red sun and yellow sun behave identically across all universes—

_”Alex…”_

Or he was a clone. Which would account for the lesser powers. And if he was a clone, dressed like one of the guards, and performing what appeared to be a fairly menial task, than he probably wasn’t the only clone.

Which meant Lex Luthor’s little black ops research site was trying to create—

_”An army.”_

Yes. An army. An army of practically Super but not quite clones.

Alex, stupidly gasped when she realized the sheer extent of the problem. Not a smart thing to do when there was a sort of Super clone not too far away.

He paused mid swing, clearly having heard her. Then he raised his hand to his ear and murmured something.

_”Oh that’s bad.”_

Very bad.

Before Alex could escape back the way she came more guards were storming down the stairs, leaving her to try another route if she didn’t want to be caught by Clone Clarks.

Thinking quickly Alex swung open the closest access panel and stepped inside.

_”Is that really thinking quickly? Because you said earlier you didn’t get a chance to see a map of the place. You could have just walked into Donovan’s room.”_

Thinking like she didn’t want to get murdered by clones Alex ran for the closest access panel and then hauled ass hoping that it would take her further from the guards and not loop right back around to them or their boss.

Which it didn’t. Because why would an access panel deep in the heart of the place just arbitrarily loop back to the residential part of the facility?

Instead it brought her…to the outside of the rig and right into the squall they’d barely escaped by helicopter earlier that day.

The storm was raging now. Alex was instantly soaked through to the bone, the wind numbing her fingers and nose quickly after.

And the guards…the guards had definitely discovered the access panel and were closing in. Even over the storm she could hear their boots.

Which meant Alex had to go out in the rain or risk getting caught.

She pulled on her gloves and prayed the batteries in them would keep the magnets charged long enough for her to escape—

## **\\*

”You had your gloves? The ones Winn made you?”

Alex scowled at her sister. “Yes. Why do you keep interrupting?”

“When did you get the gloves?”

“I always have the gloves. They make me like half Magneto when I wear them. Why wouldn’t I have the gloves?”

“Well you didn’t mention them, at all, which you should have far before this. Like when you were going on about the pajamas you wore to investigate? That would have been the time to mention the gloves.”

“Can you maybe not edit me like I’m your little clairvoyant mentee.”

“Nia would have remembered to mention the gloves.”

## **\\*

Yes. Alex had her gloves Winn had made her that were capable of emitting rudimentary electromagnetic energy, allowing Alex to do things like create shields or climb up the side of a metal building floating around in the middle of the Arctic Ocean during a squall.

Lena had repeatedly reminded her not to bring her gun or weapons, but she was pretty sure the gloves, usually defensive in nature, didn’t count.

_”You were wearing pajama bottoms and a Henley. Where did you even put them?”_

Alex had cleverly put her gloves down the front of her underwear.

_”Oh.”_

And now she was wearing them. They were very handy, but intended for short bouts of activity, after which they would recharge themselves. Not long climbs.

Alex, clinging to the wall a few stories above a roaring ocean, was on a timeline.

She crawled quickly, trying to ignore the way her teeth chattered and the shivers moving through her became more frequent and violent.

Her gloves weren’t the only thing on a timeline.

_”Hypothermia.”_

She chanced a glance back towards the hatch. The guards hadn’t followed, the storm and dark sky giving Alex just enough cover. But lights were now shining down onto the water below, which frothed against the sides of the station’s support pylons.

Alex just had to get back to her room before someone found she was gone. Maybe get a blanket. Or six.

But the enormous access panel she found on what she hoped was the right level of the station didn’t bring her to another series of hallways intended for wiring and piping.

Instead, the panel, which was easily the largest access panel she’d ever seen, brought her directly into Lena Luthor’s bedroom.

And because Lena was not accustomed to the side of her bedroom opening up to a storm and someone clambering in—

_”You got punched.”_

Alex got hit in side of the head, and only managed to survive a bludgeoning by Luthor by using her gloves to quickly deflect the second swing of a chair.

And that deflection cast off enough light to illuminate her face, which led to less swinging from Lena.

Lena’s hair was in her face and her cheeks red from exertion. “Alex? What the hell are you doing?”

Alex, at the time, didn’t really know. She just knew she was freezing and possibly dying. So she chattered her teeth and hugged herself and said “Went for a walk.”

Lena—the lights were dim so she couldn’t make out much but hair a little color—seemed to scowl before pulling Alex further in and shutting the door.

## **\\*

“The piano!”

Alex blinked. “What?”

“The door,” Kara said. “Or access panel. That's why it's so large right? Because it was for the piano you mentioned earlier?”

“I mean yes? I don't know. Probably.”

Kara groaned. “Then why did you mention the piano earlier?”

“Because it's huge! And stupid!”

“And shouldn't fit! See this is a tiny piece of payoff.”

“Good?”

Kara sank. “You are so useless as a writer.”

“I'm not writing. I was trying to tell you—“

## **\\*

Lena knelt down next to Alex, who was leaning against the closed door, breathing hard and fighting shivers that wracked her entire body.

“What happened?”

“I heard something.” Her teeth were chattering, each word coming out a stutter. “Investigated. Pretty sure they're clones!”

There was pounding at the door—the real one—not the one Alex had just used. Lena glanced at it.

“They saw you didn't they?”

“I don't think they saw my face, but yeah, they probably know someone saw them.”

Lena hissed in annoyance. “Come on,” she said.

Then she started tugging at Alex’s wet clothes.

_”She did not.”_

She started with Alex’s shirt, peeling it off of her and shoving it into one of her suitcases. Then she threw the shirt she'd been wearing in for good measure. “Hurry up and get in the bed.”

Alex’s brain really was really not working right. Or maybe it was a topless Lena Luthor standing over her, chest heaving—

_”I get it Alex.”_

No, it was the threat of hypothermia, because she just continued shaking and staring. Lena then knelt down and picked her up, looping her arms under Alex’s and walking her back to the bed.

“You're an idiot you know.” Her words were puffs of hot air on Alex’s cheek.

Alex didn't have a response for that. So she mumbled an apology.

There was another bang at the door. Louder.

“What are you—“

Lena threw the sheet over Alex and then yanked the top blanked off and wrapped it around her own shoulders. She started toward the door. Stopped and swung back around laying a hard kiss on Alex’s lips that left them both bruised. “Look sleepy and happy,” she said, still close, her hair a curtain around them both.

_”are you guys—“_

Then she marched towards the door, swinging it open with all the irritation of a woman bothered mid coitus.

_”You were doing the sexy spy thing!”_

They were doing the sexy spy thing. Or Lena was. Alex was busy trying to show enough skin to look like she'd been having sexy while also hiding the fact that she was fairly certain her blood was turning into a slushy in her veins.

Lena though. She was magnificent. Looking furious and ravishing in nothing but a blanket.

It was enough to startle the masked guard pounding at the door.

“Any reason you're waking me up?”

Donovan, harried and in her pajamas rushed into view. “Ms. Luthor! Apologies, it's just we had a security incident—“

“What?” Lena’s voice was as cold as Alex felt. “What kind of incident?”

“Someone was in a restricted area. And that woman who claims to be your assistant is not in her room.”

“I know.”

“You...know?”

Lena stepped back, the light of the hallways falling on Alex. “She's been here for hours.”

Donovan and the guard did not linger.

_”The sexy spy thing actually works?!”_

“Smart,” Alex chattered.

“Unlike some people in this room.” Lena was deeply irritated and fiddling with the blanket still covering her otherwise bare shoulders. Alex could spy a sliver of skin, a navel that just yesterday she’d had her tongue—

_”Okay.”_

“I,” Alex tried to get out of the bed. “I should go to my room.”

Lena’s hand, hotter than anything Alex had ever felt, settled on her shoulder. “You're freezing Alex.”

“Nothing a couple of blankets won't fix.”

Lena tsked and yanked the blanket off her shoulders then tucked it back into the bed and around Alex. “You're already slipping into hypothermia. We need to get your body heat up.”

_”Oh my god,” Kara said. Her hands covering her mouth._

“Scoot over,” Lena ordered.

Too cold to do much else Alex tried to move over a little. Lena grew impatient and settled into the bed reaching blindly beneath the covers and fumbling with Alex’s pants

“What are you—“

“You're pants are half frozen. We need them off.”

_”I cannot.”_

Alex’s pants landed on the floor. Quickly joined by Lena’s. Then warm legs were wrapping around her own and a warm, very naked, body was being pressed into her. Hands running up and down her back vigorously.

“It's all right,” she heard Lena say, her breath puffs of hot air against her forehead and violent shivers wracked Alex’s exhausted body.

“I'm fine.”

Lips, hot as melting iron, pressed to her skin. “You're really not.”

## **\\*

“You naked cuddled?! To conserve heat?!” Kara was clutching a pillow so tightly it was about to explode.

“Yeah,” Alex said. And if she said it dreamily it's because she was still remembering snatches of that night. Nothing happened. No actual sex. (That came later and was worth another kind of noise.) It was just warmth and a intimacy she wasn't accustomed to. Private and romantic and caring. Lena hadn't smelled strongly of any particular familiar scent, but she'd been something better than the chemical smell of the facility. Soft and human.

Her hair had been a gossamer touch while her hands and the press of her skin had been firm. She'd soothed Alex to sleep and whenever she'd drifted into wakefulness she'd found bright eyes watching her in the dark. Concerned.

When she woke that morning it was with her open mouth pressed to Lena’s throat and their bodies intertwined. Wet heat pressed together.

She'd been so sluggish, still a little out of it after the night before, that the closeness hadn't registered. Only a woman’s throat beneath her teeth. She’d drawn sweet moans from a distant mouth. Relished the nails creating crescent marks in her skin. That heat against her thigh.

But the gasp of her own name had broken the spell. Lifted the last vestiges of sleep.

Too embarrassed to pull herself away she'd pressed another gentle kiss to Lena’s throat and tried to remember where she'd been and what she'd done.

The memories pulled her out of the bed. Her hands had gone through her hair, greasy from her night time adventure.

“How are you feeling,” Lena had asked and the embarrassment had kept Alex from the truth. She couldn't say she liked waking up next to Lena or that she almost felt like last night had been worth it because it had ended with the achingly intimate time in Lena’s arms.

So she'd wrestled on her still damp clothes. Apologized. And fled.

Lena, later, told Alex she'd wished she'd chased after her.


End file.
